Sky Parlor: A NOVEL

by Stephen Perkins

  Shifting his chair closer, and while his veins seared with danger’s hot blood, Bobby’s eyes scanned the cafeteria before his bizarre revelation spilled forth.

  “Look, I shouldn’t be telling you this either because, well, I gave my father my word, but – since we’re all in this together, we must stick together, right? What I mean is, we all must agree that for now, everything we’ve said here stays between us, okay?”

  The world around them seemed to freeze into a surreal limbo as Bobby related his grotesque account.

  “My dad, who, you both already know, still works at Greenview, the food packaging plant,” he related, “He says he found some things in the vats at the production facility when some inspectors were sent from the council – things like– things that looked like body parts from kids and babies and stuff.”

  Boudica fixed a reluctant stare upon the green food package stabbed with the white plastic fork shoved near the center of the cafeteria table. The pale contours of her face twisted into gnarled and freakish disproportions, thinking the bright pink and purplish hues of the artificial food package now resembled some monstrous and malformed carcass she had crucified with a blunt weapon.

  “I think I’m so not going to eat anything for the rest of my life,” she lamented, her voice sounded distant and disembodied.

  “Let’s hope for all our sakes, Bobby,” Lucius added, cautious in suspending judgement, “your father is wrong about this. Because the consequences are too great to truly contemplate.”

  “My dad says he’s going to go see Alderman Starr about all of this – but, there is something else,” Bobby said.

  Bobby’s glanced sheepishly as he watched both Lucius and Boudica exchange quizzical glances.

  “I don’t know,” a reticent Bobby began, “but I had this dream that was really strange the other night.”

  Bobby’s pleading hands jabbed forth as if grasping for an explanation from the air.

  “Have you ever wondered guys, I don’t know, but like,” he said, accompanied by another frantic gesture from his ursine hands, “do you think we ever really die or…do we return go live again with those we knew before?”

  Boudica’s lips curled into a smirk and shaking her mane of red hair as if baffled, Lucius could detect she was making a genuine effort not to laugh.

  “I don’t know, but I think you might have sniffed one too many jock straps while in the varsity locker room there, Bobby,” she skewered with withering wit.

  With spry agility, Bobby sprang out of his seat and flashed a disarming smile.

  “Look, let’s forget about all of this crazy stuff for now,” he suggested, clapping his hands together while enthusiasm radiated from every pore. “This afternoon, everyone is going to be blown away by my science project,” he said. “I found out my mom used to be an amateur magician when she was my age, and she was showing me how to turn the science behind our project we did together into a real show with some of the illusion tricks she used to do. My mom is just the best. In fact, guys, Mister Kaiser’s scheduled our class for the theater auditorium, and everyone’s going to be there, even the principal – how about that, huh?”

  Boudica’s carmine brows crocheted together into a quilt of surprise while the corners of her curled cherry lips hinted at sarcasm.

  “No one would expect anything other than a show from you. I think it’s because you can’t resist the temptation to always be the center of attention,” Boudica jibed, scrunching her freckled nose. “Do I have that right, Bobby?”

  Bobby’s smile withered, and he once again grew solemn.

  “You know me all too well, don’t you Boudica?” he joked.

  His heart-shaped mouth cracked into a brief grin before the ice blue sheen of his eyes began to reflect a reticent vulnerability.

  “But look guys, I couldn’t have done it without you – I mean that, so thanks.”

  Lucius could sense, despite Bobby’s callow swagger and Boudica’s spitfire façade as a defense against the dreaded inevitable, despair’s sinister phantom still lingered and that now, he too, could feel a wicked omen’s terrible shudder.

  “Well, I have to get to the auditorium, to prepare for my little show this afternoon,” Bobby said, flashing his winningest smile. “I know you and everyone will love it – so, see you there?”

  As Bobby strode out of the cafeteria, he felt stranded between a dark abyss and the specter of grim death for having broken his word to his father. Somehow, he knew, just as he summoned the courage to face his implacable enemies out on the schoolboy gridiron, he would have to face his father, but as he balled his fists and felt his head overwhelmed with bleak clouds of both frustration and shame, he began to wonder, would he be willing to stand alone, and accept the consequences? Somehow, he began to consider, the game of life was turning out to be much different or perhaps more dangerous than the violent contest of the schoolboy gridiron. Then, he began to ponder the images of his strange dream from the night before. How was it possible she was in the cafeteria disguised as one of the cheerleaders? Could it be true what his dream’s illusive phantom had told – that he had been a soldier many centuries ago? His fingers began to trace the slim rectangular outline of the odd compact object in his pocket the phantom had left with him, and with deliberation, his hand pulled it out to examine it. His ginger fingers felt the mirror smooth black surface and he began to wonder: is it true I can bring to life whatever I imagine just by thinking about it? Was she the girl in my dream and with the help of this thing, did I bring her to life somehow? Could she be the spirit who became my mom…but she was someone else in another life I lived through in the past?

  The firm grip of an authoritative hand on his shoulder interrupted his introspection.

  “Hey, Tepper,” a deep voice intoned.

  With his blood burning like a combustible inferno, Bobby turned to face the squat, flat nosed but commanding figure of his varsity coach, Mister Hammond. In haste, he buried the strange and magical object back into the depths of his pocket.

  “How are you doing? Still ready kick the hell out of Arcadia tomorrow night– despite everything?”

  “Yeah, coach,” Bobby replied, fixing a confident grin, “I’m always ready, you know that.”

  “Good, glad to hear it,” the coach said. “But as you know, we’ve got a problem since Jefferson, our place kicker, is no longer with us – I was wondering, for the sake of the team, if you’d be willing to step in. You’re the best athlete on the team, and after all – no matter what adversity – I know you can get it done, Bobby. That’s why you were unanimously voted to be the team’s captain.”

  For a moment, Bobby’s lips appeared flummoxed. Then, thinking of one of his newfound friends, and recalling a memorable playground incident from his youth, what he considered to be a novel notion arced like a blue electric streak.

  “You know, coach,” he said, grinning, “I know this might sound crazy, but I think I’ve got the solution that just might work to solve our problem – he’s only a freshman, but I know he’s someone who can kick the ball all the way to the moon.”

  14

  Columbia Prep

  (School Auditorium)

  Columbia Prep’s auditorium was a cavernous space enclosed by black walls and a soaring white dome. While seated next to Boudica and Bobby’s father in the front row before the raised dais of the spacious stage, Lucius turned his head and scanned the shadowy capacity of faces half-shaded in darkness. His mind clicked back to a most surreal encounter that had occurred seemingly only moments before, when he was called to the athletic director’s office for a most unusual and impromptu conference with Mister Hammond, the varsity football coach, and he began to wonder: how is it the others, Bobby’s teammates would react, knowing a saint would be suiting up for the varsity Eagles?

  “You’ve got the support of a very persuasive friend in our team captain Bobby Lee Tepper, Son,” the squat Hammond told him while hunched behind his private office’s enormous black desk. �
�He said that you could ‘kick the ball all the way to the moon’. Though I’ve never seen you kick, I trust Bobby’s judgment, because for the four years he’s played for me, he’s never let me down or his teammates. Even though, let’s face it, Son, you’re a saint, and though you might be thinking they’ll be bad feelings because of all the ZEN news reports about what happened to the boys on our team, and because of the identity of the accused suspect and all – but I can guarantee, once they see you’ve suited up and you go out there on the field to help us win,” Lucius recalled Hammond’s reassurance, “you’ll be accepted as just one of the boys.”

  Stunned into silence while searching for a suitable reply, Lucius recalled– at that moment – feeling somewhat amused and perhaps even a bit flattered Bobby remembered their childhood playground encounter from years ago. He also reflected - while the entire student body rose to its feet as Columbia Prep’s principal, along with his and Boudica’s science teacher, Mister Kaiser, took the stage to stand in front of the enormous crimson curtain – on feeling a bit uneasy, despite the coach’s comforting reassurance, with Hammond’s rather matter-of-fact manner, as if he didn’t really have a choice.

  “The team is in a bad way since what happened recently, and we need you, Son,” Lucius heard Hammond’s gruff voice rumble in his brain, “The Eagles are going to need you to fill in as the team’s place kicker tonight in the championship game against Arcadia. This is your chance – the chance of a lifetime – to help bring pride back to everyone in the school, and to everyone in Columbia.”

  Lucius recalled becoming startled when Hammond’s rough hand, coiled with wild snares of brown hair, jabbed at him over the desk’s surface like a spearing meat hook as the coach reared his pumpkin-sized head closer.

  “Well, Son; what do you say?”

  Now, Lucius wondered how Hammond would have responded if he’d bothered to ask if he really had a choice in the matter. Furthermore – he recalled being stricken with the ironic thought while quietly seated before Hammond – it seemed strange the restoration of psychological well-being to an entire region, predominantly filled with breeders and those who would otherwise likely resent him, now relied upon him, a saint, as the coach put it, ‘to help bring pride back pride to everyone in the school and to everyone in Columbia’.

  Wild hoots launched from the throats of the student throngs disturbed Lucius introspection, and he supposed everyone was truly celebrating the fact the final period of classes had been cancelled in lieu of the assembly.

  “Well, Mister Tepper,” he heard a smiling Boudica’s voice strain over the mayhem, “I guess now everyone will get to see the results of the science experiment we all helped Bobby with.”

  “Knowing my son, he’ll turn this into a show,” Mister Tepper replied in a deep baritone. “Then again, his mother and I taught him everything he knows. He’s a chip off the old blocks, for sure.”

  With a wave of the principal’s hand, the rollicking hoots reverberating against the auditorium’s walls subsided.

  “Thank you for all being here,” the principal began in an overly mannered tone.

  “Not like anyone had a choice to be here anyway,” Boudica joked to Lucius.

  “Considering the tragedy that has befallen our school,” the principal went on, “Mister Helmut Kaiser, the finest sustainable science instructor here at Columbia Prep, and the entire administrative staff and I, decided perhaps we could use this assembly to celebrate something really special. I know my grandparents used to tell me that those generations living before the ‘Great Rapture’ used to have what were called ‘pep rallies’ before the big championship game – well, that is what this sort of is, only in addition to celebrating the Eagles’ in the championship game tonight with the team from our neighboring region of Arcadia, we are really here to celebrate the resilience of the human spirit that lives and shines in all of us.”

  The principal’s corpulent frame edged aside and Mister Kaiser, the pole-thin science sustainability instructor, while donning a sheepish grin, stepped in front of the feedbacking microphone.

  “Ah, yeah, well, thanks for being here, and we’ve got a real treat for everyone this afternoon. Bobby Lee Tepper, who though I’ve oftentimes chided him for not adhering to his academic standing as well as he should,” Kaiser said, accompanied by an uneasy chuckle, “is here to present to us his science experiment, which I expect – for once – should get him an ‘A’ for this semester’s grade. But anyway, here he is, your varsity football captain,” Kaiser’s tinny voice cracked from the strain of a sudden crescendo, “BOBBY LEE TEPPER.”

  The entire student body unleashed an unruly and wild cheer as the red curtain – in dramatic deliberation – began to withdraw. Mountainous pillars of black smoke plumed off the elevated stage like loads of coal pouring down a chute. The air cleared and a figure donned in a tall black top hat and a midnight black cape stood tall in front of a rectangular table, twirling a long dark cane in his white-gloved hands. A young woman laid prone on the table while blue arcs of electricity zig-zagged between small antennae that stuck up like the arms of a scarecrow from either side. Through the wisps of dissipating smoke, Bobby stepped forth to the apron of the stage to address the vast student body.

  “You will notice, ladies and gentlemen,” Bobby began as Mister Tepper, Lucius and Boudica exchanged smiling glances. “That there shall be no suspended wires employed in the execution of the following experiment designed to demonstrate the scientific principles of electromagnetism. But before I begin, I should like to thank three people who were instrumental in creating the idea for what you’re all about to witness this afternoon – they are – my father, the best friend I’ve ever had, along with two of my best and newest friends here at Columbia, Lucius Holden and Boudica Murphy, and I’d like to have them stand so we can all give them a well-deserved hand, huh?”

  Smatterings of clapping hands erupted into extended applause as the trio rose from their seats.

  “Wow, so it looks like you were wrong, Boudica,” Lucius said, “Bobby did give us credit after all – and in front of the entire school no less.”

  “You know Lucius, that’s certainly true,” a reluctant Boudica replied. “But though I still think he’s such a show-off, maybe you’re right and he’s not really such a jerk.”

  “I got a feeling this is going to be something special you kids will remember for the rest of your lives and maybe you’ll even want to tell your kids,” Mister Tepper remarked as the trio regained their seats.

  “And now, may I have your complete attention,” Bobby’s clarion pitch rose over the receding din of the applause. “As you shall observe, electromagnetism is all around us, and with the power of the mind to properly use it, we can change our reality at will – anytime we wish.”

  “Maybe not a jerk,” Lucius heard Boudica whisper, “but now – after showing him a few basic scientific principles – it looks like he’s going to try to play at being god.”

  “Perhaps though,” Lucius whispered in reply, “there is a principle involved here other than just Bobby’s own self-gratification.”

  “Well, maybe you’re right, Lucius,” Boudica conceded, “but I tend to doubt it.”

  Anticipation’s intense vibration began to hammer at the walls of the auditorium as Bobby strode from the apron of the stage and while assuming a commanding posture aft of the young woman prone on the table, he struck the white-tipped black cane into the arcs of blue light that lurched like otherworldly flames from the ends of the antennae. With the white tip of the cane, Bobby directed the arcs of light higher and higher, and as he did so, the young woman, while the audience shrieked with surprise, was suspended in mid-air above the surface of the table. The awed student body once again rose from their seats, unleashing unbridled shouts. With a theatrical flourish, Bobby swept the cane beneath and above the length of the floating young woman.

  “As you can see,” Bobby announced in a profound tone, “there are no suspended or invisible wires
– only the power of the mind in tune with the principles of electromagnetism.”

  Like Moses commanding the tides of the parting Red Sea, Bobby thrust his cane higher into the air and as the audience gasped, the young woman rose another several feet above the surface of the table and the arcing bolts of light. Dread’s numbing vibrations seized the entire school assembly as the pulsating lights sparked like mad firecrackers and the young woman rose higher still. Bobby thrust the tip of the cane toward the ceiling like a javelin point. The woman flew to the theater’s very apex, and for what seemed like several perilous seconds, hovered above the gawking crowd. Pockets of anxious hoots began to fill the auditorium before Bobby – in a demonstration of mercy – began to lower the cane. As if in collective catharsis, the audience – frozen in gaping thrall - began to applaud while observing the young woman finally lowered from such a great height and back onto the table.

  “I’m glad that was her and not me up there,” Boudica remarked to Lucius.

  “You must admit, Boudica,” Lucius replied, “Bobby’s demonstrated a vivid imagination in converting the scientific principles we showed him into a magical display.”

  “Let’s be sure to keep that to ourselves, okay Lucius?” Boudica warned, adding a crooked grin, “because the next time the principal lets Bobby perform, he’ll have to hire a construction crew to remodel the building just to fit his ego inside the auditorium.”